Motorcycle vendor Aeon Motor Co Ltd (宏佳騰) yesterday said it plans to launch more test riding services combined with virtual-reality (VR) experiences next year to bolster sales.
“Aeon hopes to draw attention from target customers by making more [VR-] related services, especially young people aged between 18 and 24,” Aeon chief executive officer Tony Lin (林東閔) told reporters after the company announced its collaboration with singer Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) gaming team.
In April, the company launched its first 360° video featuring the latest VR techniques to introduce its new 3D-350 model, which aroused heated discussions on the Internet.
The company said it aims to increase its presence in the local market next year by interacting with customers on social media, including Facebook, instead of just launching TV advertisements.
Lin said he expects the new marketing strategy to help Aeon reach more potential clients and collect real-time feedback.
In the first 10 months of this year, the company saw its revenues drop 10.4 percent year-on-year to NT$2.25 billion (US$70.5 million).
However, Aeon said it expects better sales growth momentum by the end of this year, supported by the industry’s traditional high season.
The company did not disclose the figure for its unit sales during the first 10 months.
Domestic motorcycle sales grew 18.36 percent year-on-year to 716,446 units in the first 10 months of this year, thanks to new models by vendors that spurred replacement demand and consumers looking to the cheaper alternatives for mobility, data compiled by local motor vehicle branches showed last month.
Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), which sells motorcycles under the KYMCO brand, led the local market with a 37.2 percent market share, as it sold a total of 266,516 units in Taiwan in the first 10 months of the year, up 8.81 percent from the same period last year.
Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co (台灣山葉), a subsidiary of Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co, took the No. 2 spot in the local market with a 30.62 percent market share, selling 219,388 units in the first 10 months of the year, representing an annual increase of 15.9 percent.
Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業) was the third-largest with a 19.3 percent market share, seeing its sales increasing 43.16 percent annually to 138,064 units in the first 10 months of the year, the data showed.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day